The 1897 Chicago Colts season was the 26th season of the Chicago Colts franchise, the 22nd in the National League and the 5th at West Side Park. The Colts finished ninth in the National League with a record of 59–73.

1.
West Side Park
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West Side Park was the name used for two different baseball parks that formerly stood in Chicago, Illinois. They were both home fields of the now known as the Chicago Cubs of the National League. Both ballparks were what are now called wooden ballparks, the initial stadium was the clubs home beginning in 1885, succeeding Lakefront Park. The park was located on a block bounded by Congress, Loomis, Harrison and Throop Streets. The elongated shape of the block lent a bathtub-like shape to the park, the stadium held roughly 10,000 fans. In addition to the diamond, the park held a track which encircled the playing field. The Cubs had had to secure a new property after 1884, the season began on April 30, a month later than it does today, for a 112-game schedule,50 fewer games than todays major-league schedule. The club spent the first five-plus weeks of the 1885 season on the road, despite being wanderers early in the season, the powerful Chicago club, under player-manager Cap Anson, came home with an 18-6 record. They would sweep a four-game set in their first homestand and romp through the league schedule, the only team that gave them any problem was the New York Giants, who won 10 of the clubs 16 meetings and finished just two games behind Chicago in the standings. If projected to a modern 162-game schedule, that translates to 125 and 123 wins, respectively, Chicago captured the National League pennant that season and also went on to win the league crown in 1886. The championships of the 1880s were disorganized in comparison to the modern World Series, exemplified by the 1885 contest, the 1886 World Series was more conventional, and was won by the Browns. Those matchups were the first on-field confrontations of the Cubs and Cardinals clubs, the site also saw bonus baseball in 1887, as a neutral site for Game 14 of that years unique 15-game traveling World Series between the Browns and the Detroit Wolverines. In 1891 the team split its schedule between West Side Park and South Side Park, the first West Side Park was abandoned after the 1891 season, with the team playing at home exclusively on the South Side in 1892. The site of the first West Side Park is now occupied by the Andrew Jackson Language Academy, left field – unknown Center field –560 ft. Right field –216 ft. In May 1893, the club opened the second West Side Park a few blocks west-southwest of the first one, on a block bounded by Taylor, Wood, Polk. It was located at 41°52′13″N 87°40′21″W, during May and June, they split their 1893 schedule with South Side Park, playing Sunday games on the West Side and weekday games on the South Side. By mid-summer they had abandoned the South Side park and moved into the West Side park full time, home plate for this ballpark was in the northwest corner of the property, toward the Polk and Lincoln intersection. The right field fence paralleled Taylor, with flat apartments between the alley behind the field area, and Taylor itself

2.
Chicago
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Chicago, officially the City of Chicago, is the third-most populous city in the United States. With over 2.7 million residents, it is the most populous city in the state of Illinois, and it is the county seat of Cook County. In 2012, Chicago was listed as a global city by the Globalization and World Cities Research Network. Chicago has the third-largest gross metropolitan product in the United States—about $640 billion according to 2015 estimates, the city has one of the worlds largest and most diversified economies with no single industry employing more than 14% of the workforce. In 2016, Chicago hosted over 54 million domestic and international visitors, landmarks in the city include Millennium Park, Navy Pier, the Magnificent Mile, Art Institute of Chicago, Museum Campus, the Willis Tower, Museum of Science and Industry, and Lincoln Park Zoo. Chicagos culture includes the arts, novels, film, theater, especially improvisational comedy. Chicago also has sports teams in each of the major professional leagues. The city has many nicknames, the best-known being the Windy City, the name Chicago is derived from a French rendering of the Native American word shikaakwa, known to botanists as Allium tricoccum, from the Miami-Illinois language. The first known reference to the site of the current city of Chicago as Checagou was by Robert de LaSalle around 1679 in a memoir, henri Joutel, in his journal of 1688, noted that the wild garlic, called chicagoua, grew abundantly in the area. In the mid-18th century, the area was inhabited by a Native American tribe known as the Potawatomi, the first known non-indigenous permanent settler in Chicago was Jean Baptiste Point du Sable. Du Sable was of African and French descent and arrived in the 1780s and he is commonly known as the Founder of Chicago. In 1803, the United States Army built Fort Dearborn, which was destroyed in 1812 in the Battle of Fort Dearborn, the Ottawa, Ojibwe, and Potawatomi tribes had ceded additional land to the United States in the 1816 Treaty of St. Louis. The Potawatomi were forcibly removed from their land after the Treaty of Chicago in 1833, on August 12,1833, the Town of Chicago was organized with a population of about 200. Within seven years it grew to more than 4,000 people, on June 15,1835, the first public land sales began with Edmund Dick Taylor as U. S. The City of Chicago was incorporated on Saturday, March 4,1837, as the site of the Chicago Portage, the city became an important transportation hub between the eastern and western United States. Chicagos first railway, Galena and Chicago Union Railroad, and the Illinois, the canal allowed steamboats and sailing ships on the Great Lakes to connect to the Mississippi River. A flourishing economy brought residents from rural communities and immigrants from abroad, manufacturing and retail and finance sectors became dominant, influencing the American economy. The Chicago Board of Trade listed the first ever standardized exchange traded forward contracts and these issues also helped propel another Illinoisan, Abraham Lincoln, to the national stage

3.
Cap Anson
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Adrian Constantine Anson, nicknamed Cap and Pop, was a Major League Baseball first baseman. Including his time in the National Association, he played a record 27 consecutive seasons, Anson was regarded as one of the greatest players of his era and one of the first superstars of the game. Anson spent most of his career with the Chicago Cubs franchise, serving as the manager, first baseman and, later in his tenure. He led the team to five National League pennants in the 1880s, Anson was one of baseballs first great hitters, and probably the first to tally over 3,000 career hits. His contemporary influence and prestige are regarded by historians as playing a role in establishing the racial segregation in professional baseball that persisted until the late 1940s. On several occasions, Anson refused to take the field when the roster included black players. The biography states, But at the time, his argumentative nature could be readily discounted by those around him. So, the notion that he had coattails in persuading players, after retiring as a player and leaving the Colts, Anson briefly managed the New York Giants. He ran several enterprises in Chicago, including opening a billiards and bowling hall, Anson also toured extensively on the vaudeville circuit, performing monologues and songs. Many of his business ventures failed, as a result, Anson lost his ownership stake in the Colts and filed for bankruptcy. Anson was inducted into the National Baseball Hall of Fame in 1939, Anson was born in Marshalltown, Iowa. Beginning in 1866, he spent two years at the high-school age boarding school of the University of Notre Dame after being sent there by his father in hopes of curtailing his mischievousness and his time away did little to discipline him. Soon after he returned home, his father sent him to the University of Iowa and he was a large and powerful man, standing 62 tall and weighing about 220 pounds. After being traded to Philadelphia Athletics, in 1872 and 1873, Anson finished in the NAs top five in batting, on-base percentage and he led the NA in OBP in 1872. Anson, who had engaged to a Philadelphia native in the meantime, had second thoughts about going west. The White Stockings won the first league title, but fell off the pace the following two seasons, during this time, Anson was a solid hitter, but not quite a superstar. Both his fortunes and those of his team would change after Anson was named captain-manager of the club in 1879 and his new role led to the nickname Cap, though newspapers typically called him by the more formal Captain Anson or Capt. Anson. With Anson pacing the way, the White Stockings won five pennants between 1880 and 1886

4.
Clark Griffith
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Clark Calvin Griffith, nicknamed The Old Fox, was an American Major League Baseball pitcher, manager and team owner. He began his MLB playing career with the St. Louis Browns, Boston Reds and he then served as player-manager for the Chicago White Stockings and New York Highlanders. He retired as a player after the 1907 season, remaining manager of the Highlanders in 1908 and he managed the Cincinnati Reds and Washington Senators, making some appearances as a player with both teams. He owned the Senators from 1920 until his death in 1955, Griffith was elected to the National Baseball Hall of Fame in 1946. Griffith was born in Clear Creek, Missouri, to Isaiah and Sarah Anne Griffith and his parents were of Welsh ancestry. They had lived in Illinois prior to Clark Griffiths birth, the family took a covered wagon west toward the Oklahoma Territory. Along the way, the family encountered hungry and disenchanted people returning from the Oklahoma Territory, Griffith grew up with five siblings, four of them older. When Griffith was a child, his father was killed in a hunting accident when fellow hunters mistook him for a deer. Sarah Griffith struggled to raise her children as a widow, but Clark Griffith later said that his neighbors in Missouri had been helpful to his mother, planting crops for her. Fearing a malaria epidemic that was sweeping through the area, the Griffith family moved to Bloomington, a childhood incident taught him about the money side to baseball, Griffith recalled. When he was 13, he and a few young boys had raised $1.25 to buy a baseball. They sent one of the boys 12 miles on horseback to make the purchase, the ball burst on the second time that it was struck. Griffith later found out that the boy who purchased the ball only spent a quarter, at the age of seventeen, Griffith had made ten dollars pitching in a local baseball game in Hoopeston, Illinois. Griffith entered the American Association in 1891, pitching 226 1⁄3 innings and winning 14 games for the St. Louis Browns and he began the following season with the Chicago Colts. In 1893, the box was moved back, it had been 55 feet from home plate and was moved to the modern distance of 60 feet. Following that change, offensive numbers increased across baseball and many pitchers had to adjust their approaches, cap Anson was the player-manager of the Colts during Griffiths tenure and he utilized a rotation of only three starting pitchers. Just before Griffiths arrival on the team, pitcher Bill Hutchinson had thrown more than 600 innings in a season for Anson. Griffith tried a new pitch to increase his longevity, by modifying the grip of a curveball, he threw a pitch similar to the screwball that Christy Mathewson had developed

5.
History of the Chicago Cubs
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The Chicago National League Ball Club is the only franchise to play continuously in the same city since the formation of the National League in 1876. They are the earliest formed active professional sports club in North America, in their history, they have also been known as the White Stockings, Orphans, Colts, Panamas, Rainmakers, Spuds, Trojans, Microbes, and Zephyrs. It was common at the time for sportswriters to refer to teams by their colors, and it happens that Chicagos club. On April 29,1870, the Chicago White Stockings played their first game against the St. Louis Unions, and soundly defeated the Unions 7-1. The White Stockings divided their games between their downtown practice field, Ogden Park, and a facility set up at Dexter Park where they hosted games expected to draw larger crowds. C. Despite this East Coast dominance, Chicago won the NABBP championship that year, although the title was disputed by the opposing club, after their experiment with a race track in 1870, the White Stockings returned to the downtown for 1871, a decision that would prove fateful. The club arranged with the city to build a ballpark in the northeast corner of the park then known as Lake Park. The venue was dubbed the Union Base-Ball Grounds, and the club was a contender for the pennant until late in the season. On Sunday, October 8, the Great Chicago Fire erupted on the south side. The wooden ballpark was right in the path, and the grounds and all the teams equipment. Despite that disaster, the White Stockings played their 1871 season to completion, on the road and they managed to finish second, just 2 games short of the title that was won by Philadelphia. Although the original Red Stockings had disbanded after 1870, many of the players became members of a new club by the same name, but now based in Boston. Over the next four seasons, the Boston Red Stockings dominated the National Association and hoarded the games best stars, even those under contract with other teams. Hulbert, the White Stockings club president, was disgusted by the lack of contracts as well as the monopoly of the Boston club. Gambling and alcohol were seen as serious problems, with games too often being suspected of being thrown. As a result, Hulbert, spearheaded the formation of a new, stronger, the National Leagues formation meant the end of the NA, as its remaining clubs shut down or reverted to amateur or minor status. After the 1875 season ended, Hulbert was principal in the acquisition of key players, including Boston pitcher Albert Spalding. The club continued to play its games at 23rd Street

6.
Nixey Callahan
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James Joseph Nixey Callahan was an American pitcher and left fielder in Major League Baseball for the Philadelphia Phillies, Chicago Colts/Orphans, and Chicago White Sox. He also managed the White Sox, as well as the Pittsburgh Pirates, born in Fitchburg, Massachusetts, he died at age 60 in Boston. On September 20,1902, Callahan pitched the first no-hitter in American League history, also, he is the only pitcher to have collected five hits in a game three times. Only two years earlier, in the extreme of his career, he gave up 48 hits in two consecutive starts in 1900, yielding 23 on September 11 and 25 in the game before

7.
Bill Dahlen
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William Frederick Dahlen, nicknamed Bad Bill for his ferocious temperament, was an American shortstop and manager in Major League Baseball who played for four National League teams from 1891 to 1911. After twice batting over.350 for the Chicago Colts, he starred on championship teams with the Brooklyn Superbas and he was also among the NLs top seven players in hits, runs, triples and total bases. His 42-game hitting streak in 1894 was a record until 1897, and remains the fourth longest in history, Dahlen was born in Nelliston, New York at the corner of Berthoud and Dahlen and East Main. He was a good hitter and had a good amount of power for the dead-ball era. He began his career with the Colts in 1891, and during his eight years with the team finished among the NLs top ten players in home runs four times and in slugging average three times. His 1894 season included a record 42-game hitting streak from June 20 to August 6, amazingly, after going 0-for-6 in the next game, a 10-inning contest on August 7, Dahlen pulled off another 28-game streak, ending up having hit in 70 of 71 games. His mark was three years later by Willie Keeler, who hit in 44 straight, that NL record was eventually tied by Pete Rose. Only Joe DiMaggio, with his 56-game streak in 1941, has bettered Dahlens mark among right-handed batters, Dahlen also twice hit three triples in a game, and once he tripled twice in one inning. Prior to the 1899 season, Dahlen was traded by Chicago, in 1902, he finished fourth in the NL with 74 RBI. In 1903 he set an NL record for fielding percentage with a.948 average, breaking George Wrights 1878 mark of.947, Tommy Corcoran broke his record in 1905 with a.952 average. After the 1903 season, Dahlen was traded to the Giants, while Cronin and Babb contributed only three bad years to Brooklyn, Dahlen posted great numbers with the Giants, leading the league with 80 RBI in his first year,1904. In 1905 he was again among the RBI leaders, despite hitting only.242, although he was hitless in the five-game Series, he contributed with flawless defense and by drawing three walks and stealing three bases. He was often considered one of the quietest players in the game, after the 1907 season, he was traded to the Boston Doves, for whom he played his last two full seasons. In 1909 he broke Jake Beckleys record of 2386 career games and he was named Brooklyns manager for the 1910 season, but never finished above 6th place in four seasons. His last playing appearances were three games as a pinch-hitter in 1910, and one game at shortstop in 1911. In a 21-season career, Dahlen batted.272, his 84 home runs were then among the fifteen highest totals in history, and ranked behind only Herman Long among shortstops. His 289 stolen bases after the statistic was redefined in 1898 were then among the ten highest totals, Dahlens 14,566 total chances at all positions have been surpassed by only Maranville and Wagner. Dahlen died in Brooklyn after an illness at age 80

8.
Road (sports)
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A road game or away game is a sports game where the specified team is not the host and must travel to another venue. Most professional teams represent cities or towns and amateur sports teams often represent academic institutions, each team has a location where it practices during the season and where it hosts games. When a team is not the host, it must travel to games. Thus, when a team is not hosting a game, the team is described as the team, the visiting team, or the away team. The venue in which the game is played is described as the stadium or the road. The host team is said to be the home team, major sporting events, if not held at a neutral venue, are often over several legs at each teams home ground, so that neither team has an advantage over the other. Occasionally, the team may not have to travel very far at all to a road game. These matches often become local derbies, a few times a year, a road team may even be lucky enough to have the road game played at their own home stadium or arena. This is prevalent in college athletics where many schools will play in regional leagues or groundshare. The related term true road game has seen increasing use in U. S. college sports in the 21st century, while regular-season tournaments and other special events have been part of college sports from their creation, the 21st century has seen a proliferation of such events. These are typically held at sites, with some of them taking place outside the contiguous U. S. or even outside the country entirely. In turn, this has led to the use of true road game to refer to contests played at one home venue. In some association football leagues, particularly in Europe, the teams fans sit in their own section. Depending on the stadium, they will either sit in a designated section or be separated from the home fans by a cordon of police officers. However, in the leagues in England, supporters may be free to mix. When games are played at a site, for instance the FA Cup final in England which is always played at Wembley Stadium. This results in each team occupying one half of the stadium and this is different from other sports, particularly in North America, where very few fans travel to games played away from their home stadium. Home and away fans are not separated at these games

9.
Adonis Terry
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William H. Adonis Terry was an American Major League Baseball player whose career spanned from his debut with the Brooklyn Atlantics in 1884, to the Chicago Colts in 1897. In his 14 seasons, he compiled a 197-196 win–loss record, born in Westfield, Massachusetts, Terry began his professional career with the minor league Brooklyn Grays in 1883, who won the Interstate Championship that season. The following season, the team was admitted into the American Association as the Brooklyn Atlantics, in that 1884 season, the team finished in ninth place, and his win-loss record reflected that. Although his record was 19-35, he led the team with a run average of 3.55. Over the next three seasons, Terry had average-to-good seasons, had a record of 40 wins and 49 losses. But it was not until 1888 that he turned into a star pitcher, in that season, he had a 13-8 record, a 2.03 ERA, and tossed his second no-hitter, this time against the Louisville Colonels on May 27,1888. In 1889, the won the American Association championship with Terry winning 22 games. He pitched five games, winning two, in the World Series after the season with the New York Giants, a series that Brooklyn lost six games to three. The 1891 season turned out to be a disappointment for both Brooklyn and Terry, as the finished in sixth place and Terry record fell to 6-16. On June 10,1892, Brooklyn released Terry, and was signed by the Baltimore Orioles on June 14. He played just one game for Baltimore, a complete games loss and he pitched well in his 2-plus seasons for Pittsburgh, winning 18 games in 1892 and 12 more in 1893. In 1894, he changed teams for the last time, after pitching in one game for the Pirates, he was then picked up by the Chicago Colts and had moderate success in his four seasons with them. He went on to win 21 games in 1895 and 15 more in 1896, on July 13,1896, he had the unfortunate distinction of giving up all four home runs to Philadelphia Phillie hall-of-Famer Ed Delahanty in a game played at the old West Side Grounds. Pitching the complete game, he and his Colts were able to prevail and he played only one game the following season in 1897, a complete-game loss, before his career came to end. His career totals include a 197 wins and 196 losses, a 3.74 ERA and he was also a versatile player, often playing other positions, including 216 games in the outfield, with games also played at shortstop, first base and third base. After his Major League career was over, he became an umpire for 39 games in the 1900 National League season and he had filled the umpire position from time to time during his playing days. In total, he umpired 51 games,48 of them as the plate umpire. Adonis is the honoree of old-time baseball events that are held in his hometown of Westfield, Terry died in Milwaukee, Wisconsin at the age of 50 from an episode of pneumonia, and was cremated

10.
National League
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Both leagues currently have 15 teams. The two league champions of 1903 arranged to compete against each other in the inaugural World Series, after the 1904 champions failed to reach a similar agreement, the two leagues formalized the World Series as an arrangement between the leagues. National League teams have won 48 of the 112 World Series contested from 1903 to 2016, the 2016 National League champions are the Chicago Cubs. By 1875, the National Association of Professional Base Ball Players was dangerously weak, additionally, Hulbert had a problem—five of his star players were threatened with expulsion from the NAPBBP because Hulbert had signed them to his club using what were considered questionable means. Hulbert had a vested interest in creating his own league. After recruiting St. Louis privately, four western clubs met in Louisville, Kentucky, Boston Red Stockings, the dominant team in the N. A. Hartford Dark Blues from the N. A. Mutual of New York from the N. A. St. Louis Brown Stockings from the N. A, the only strong club from 1875 excluded in 1876 was a second one in Philadelphia, often called the White Stockings or Phillies. The first game in National League history was played on April 22,1876, at Philadelphias Jefferson Street Grounds, 25th & Jefferson, the new leagues authority was tested after the first season. The National League operated with six clubs during 1877 and 1878, over the next several years, various teams joined and left the struggling league. By 1880, six of the eight members had folded. The two remaining original NL franchises, Boston and Chicago, remain in operation today as the Atlanta Braves, in 1883 the New York Gothams and Philadelphia Phillies began National League play. Both teams remain in the NL today, the Phillies in their original city, the NL encountered its first strong rival organization when the American Association began play in 1882. The A. A. played in cities where the NL did not have teams, offered Sunday games and alcoholic beverages in locales where permitted, the National League and the American Association participated in a version of the World Series seven times during their ten-year coexistence. These contests were less organized than the modern Series, lasting as few as three games and as many as fifteen, with two Series ending in disputed ties, the NL won four times and the A. A. only once, in 1886. Starting with the Pittsburgh Pirates in 1887, the National League began to raid the American Association for franchises to replace NL teams that folded and this undercut the stability of the A. A. Other new leagues that rose to compete with the National League were the Union Association, the Union Association was established in 1884 and folded after playing only one season, its league champion St. Louis Maroons joining the NL. The NL suffered many defections of star players to the Players League, the Brooklyn, Chicago, Pittsburgh, and New York franchises of the NL absorbed their Players League counterparts. The labor strife of 1890 hastened the downfall of the American Association, after the 1891 season, the A. A. disbanded and merged with the NL, which became known legally for the next decade as the National League and American Association

11.
1876 in baseball
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After a tumultuous five-year existence, the National Association of Professional Base Ball Players folded following the 1875 season. One of the new rules put into place by the new league was that all teams had to be located in cities that had a population of 75,000 or more. The initial NL season began with eight teams, and they were asked to play seventy games between April 22 and October 21, the NL is considered to be the first major league, although it has been argued that the NA can make that claim. National League, Chicago White Stockings Champions of the West, St. Louis Brown Stockings Four premier semi-professional teams were in play in 1876 and they were the Binghamton Crickets, the Columbus Buckeyes, the Pittsburgh Alleghenys and the Syracuse Stars. In competition against NL clubs these 4 semi-pro teams played 32 games – winning 16, losing 14, of the 60 players on these 4 semi-pro teams no fewer than 50 of them wound up playing in the National League over the next 5 seasons. Chicago White Stockings signed Cap Anson as a free agent, hartford Dark Blues signed Candy Cummings as a free agent. Boston Red Caps signed George Wright as a free agent, august 10,1876 – The New York Mutuals loaned Nealy Phelps to the Philadelphia Athletics. Phelps returned to the Mutuals on the same day, bryces Base Ball Guide General Ginsburg, Daniel E. The Fix Is in, A History of Baseball Gambling and Game Fixing Scandals, reiss, Steven A. Encyclopedia of Major League Baseball Clubs, Volume 1. Specific 1876 season at baseball-reference. com Charltons Baseball Chronology at BaseballLibrary. com Year by Year History at Baseball-Almanac. com Retrosheet. org

12.
1893 in baseball
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The following are the baseball events of the year 1893 throughout the world. National League, Boston Beaneaters June 19 – Baltimore Orioles outfielder Piggy Ward reached base a record 17 times in 17 consecutive plate appearances, the record would be matched 69 years later, when catcher Earl Averill, Jr. tied that mark in 1962. August 16 – Bill Hawke of the Baltimore Orioles pitches a no-hitter against the Washington Senators in a 5–0 win and it is the first no-hitter thrown from the modern-day pitching distance of 606. August 18 – The Boston Beaneaters set a Major League record which stands for the most batters hit by a pitch in an inning. Four batters are hit in the 2nd inning in the game with the Pittsburgh Pirates, november 21 – Ban Johnson is named president, secretary, and treasurer of the recently reorganized Western League. Under Johnsons leadership the WL will prosper, catcher for two teams in 1881. April 18 – Fred Siefke,23, third baseman for the 1890 Brooklyn Gladiators